Be brutal people

[jMcQuarrie]

OK, so I think I've been a round here long enough now to ask for some honest feedback.

When I started my blog I was aiming to establish myself as a knowledgeable User Experience (UE) professional. Please note that I'm not trying to sell my services, I'm just trying to get a reputation as someone who knows his game.

In terms of a style, I was trying to let the content speak for itself, give a clear and corporate image that was influenced by newspaper design, but have a UI that didn't over power the articles and didn't look so bloggish (if that makes sense).

My target audience has always proven difficult for me to nail down; part of me wants to write for business people who know little about UE, but who need to know more, and part of me wants to write for other UE people and web designers. I'm still struggling with this.

So, what I'd like to know is: what impression of me and my area of expertise comes through based on my website? Am I way off the mark, somewhere close to it or smack bang on target?

Be brutal, be honest and please don't be offended if I choose to disagree with your response.

Check out my site at:

http://www.jmcquarrie.co.uk (or without the www's if you prefer ;))

[davemcnally]

I'd say you've pretty much nailed it. Some posts I could see being aimed at business people but you also have content which I think is more suited to web designers.

The layout is clean and effective, I like it. It has a newspaper-type feel to it :)

[ses5909]

I agree, overall it's pretty good and it looks nice. Some things you may want to try

1. Add an RSS icon to the page itself as people may overlook the one on the posts.
2. When your posts are shorter, you have a lot of whitespace between the post and the footer due to the content in the sidebar. While I like the idea of your latest post only on the first page, I think I would also like to see at least the titles of your last 5 posts or something underneath it.

[jMcQuarrie]

@Dave - Thanks for the kind words. Is there anything you'd change? Or any topic you'd like to see covered (business or dev)?

@Sara - I have to admit that the RSS icon was an after thought, and I should give it a bit more attention. And I should also admit that the design was based on my posts always being a lot longer than they have been lately, so in theory you'd have the previous posts listed below the end of the main article (they're there at the bottom of the screen), but as you note they're not long enough at the moment...

I need to give my writing some more love I think.

[davemcnally]

@Dave - Thanks for the kind words. Is there anything you'd change? Or any topic you'd like to see covered (business or dev)?

The only thing I would perhaps change would be the logo. I'm on a laptop at the moment so it may simply be that but because you are just using standard text rather than an image and it is quite large, the text is showing pixelated around the edges.

I do like the look of the logo though, as I think it fits into the overall style and looks like a newspaper heading. I would therefore probably take the same font and make an image of the logo so it is a lot clearer and just provide the text itself as an alternative.

I am interested in most topics relating to web development so I'll quite happily be coming back to keep an eye on those anyway :)

[shyflower]

I just read your article "Sometimes trees grow sideways". Very well written. You got me hooked! Excellent! (Is that brutal enough?)

[jMcQuarrie]

I just read your article "Sometimes trees grow sideways". Very well written. You got me hooked! Excellent! (Is that brutal enough?)

I think I can just about cope with your brutality... :tongue:

[malique]

i like the way you write! :D

[TVs Worst Adverts]

Hi James,

I think that you've got some great content. Like Shyflower I thought your "Sometimes trees grow sideways" article was really well written.

I've got a couple of suggestions that might be really picky but...

To let your content speak a little louder for itself I'd think about giving the div #post-n a little more of a gutter on the right-hand side. Even at 1280x1024 it's a little tight to the right-hand column and I think it distracts from the articles.

I'd maybe try adding a bit more margin around images in articles. The one on the "Sometimes trees grow sideways" article seems to be crashing into the text a little on the left-hand side.

Finally I think that adding a bit more padding-left and padding-right to the div #supplement would make the contents look a little tidier.

I really like the style of a journal and I agree with Sara having just the one post is a great idea.

I hope that's not too picky.

Cheers,
Ian.

[jMcQuarrie]

Hi Ian,

That's not too picky at all. In fact now that I look at it, those changes do make sense.

I'll not make them straight away, but I'll keep them in mind for my next scheduled code update.

Thanks for the feedback

[starfeeder]

I think it looks good, very clean and business like... newspapery. To me the Elsewhere sidebar could use a bit more contrast, titles and summaries kinda blended in too much.

[jMcQuarrie]

Thanks for your feedback starfeeder

[Evan]

You come across as competent and reliable to me (though it is well and truly outside my area of expertise.

Perhaps the way to cover both audiences is to do articles that your posts point to.